


Wild Mountain Thyme

by WelshieMightyMouse



Series: Alec’s Animals [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec tames the animals, All the Cute, Fluff, M/M, Magnus is amazed by what Alec can do, One Shot, alec sings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 22:38:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15567903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WelshieMightyMouse/pseuds/WelshieMightyMouse
Summary: Alec Lightwood has always been good with animals. Everyone knows how he tamed a feral dog to become his loyal companion, everyone that is except his boyfriend Magnus.But when a certifiably insane horse is sent his way, Alec has the chance to show Magnus his skills.





	Wild Mountain Thyme

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I wrote this randomly from a head canon that I’ve had for a while after reading Magnus’ comments about Chairman Meow loving Alec. I just can’t seem to get it out of my head that Alec is an animal person and I can just imagine him wandering around with a dog at his heels constantly.
> 
> Anyway my brain made a thing and I wrote it all down and I hope you like it.
> 
> Yes I did make Alec sing a Scottish folk song, sue me.
> 
> Also this is my first Malec fic, it was written in under an hour and it’s unbeta’d so any corrections and comments are welcome :)
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy it, and if you like it I might do a little Hunter/Alec origin story

Alec Lightwood is good with animals.

If there is ever a patrol or a raid that takes a team down to the docks, or down into the abandoned factory region, where the local stray dog population like to hang out. Alec can guarantee he’ll be asked to go.

“They just seem to like you!” Izzy whines when he brings up the subject with her. 

“Oh yeah, I can really see the love in their eyes while I’m trying to stop them ripping us all to shreds!” Alec exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air to exaggerate his point. Izzy just rolls her eyes at him and stalks off to collect her gear.

Jace loves to tease him about it 

“Alec Lightwood, tamer of animals, you should get that on a business card” he smirks as he hands Alec his bow, grabbing a seraph blade from the rack for himself. 

“I don’t really even do anything, I don’t see why I always have to be there just in case” Alec rolls his eyes at him and all but rips the bow from his hands.

So when he gets a call from Idris, saying they are sending him a ‘personal project’, at first Alec can’t quite work out what it could be. It’s only when a portal appears in the courtyard, and Alec can hear the blood curdling screams of the horse, all the way from his office, does he realise what it is. With a sign he drops his pen onto the paperwork he’s been filling out, and rises to confront his new charge. 

~*~

“That animal looks insane”  
Magnus mumbles as he walks up to the gate Alec is leaning on.

“Where on earth did he come from?”

“A group of kids found him in the grounds of an old manor house not far from Alicante. Belonged to the last surviving member of an old shadowhunter family. Apparently no one thought to check to see if the horse was still alive” Alec replies, he’s watching the horse pace the courtyard, crisp autumn leaves crunch under his hooves as he sways back and forth along the fence line. The animal was beautiful, with a sleek black coat that shone even in the dim courtyard, sweat ran down his neck and chest in rivulets from his restlessness.

“Poor soul, half crazed with abandonment. Why did they send him to you?” Magnus glances at him, confusion in his eyes.

“He’s our resident lion tamer!” Jace jokingly replies before Alec can open his mouth. Both Magnus and Alec turn towards him as he walks up behind them and claps a hand onto Alec’s shoulder. 

“Alec here will turn that man-eater into a fuzzy little kitten in three seconds” 

“It’s a horse Jace, not a tiger” Alec retorts as he shrugs Jace’s hand from his shoulder and pulls open the wrought iron gate to enter the courtyard. 

“Whatever you say, Doctor Doolittle” Jace smirks, taking Alec’s place leaning on the rusted gate. Magnus studies Alec’s cautious entrance into the courtyard before turning to address Jace.

“How do you know he can do this?” Magnus lowers his voice, not wanting Alec to overhear him.

Jace snorts and inclines his head down towards their feet.

“Because when we first met him, he was a feral little fluff ball gnawing on my leg until Alec got hold of him” 

Jace was referring to Hunter, the broad shouldered dog currently sat at Magnus’ feet. Magnus had become accustomed to the loyal hound that was always at Alec’s heels. Although, since Alec became head of the institute and no longer spent as much time out in the field. Magnus was more often than not, finding the dog wandering around his apartment, long after Alec had left for the day. 

As if on cue, Hunter raises his head to look at him, shifting slightly so his weight was leaning against Magnus’ left leg. Magnus dropped his hand from the gate to scratch the dog behind the ears, running his soft fur through his fingers. The hound that was clearly the love child of an escaped German Shepherd, and some mundane family’s pet Labrador, pushed his face into Magnus’ hip. It was hard to believe the docile dog could have been anything close to feral, especially since Magnus knows his favourite place in the apartment is between him and Alec, on the silk sheets of the bed. 

Magnus turns his attention from the dog to it’s owner, Alec is stood at the edge of the fence line and it seemed to Magnus that he was waiting to catch the horse’s attention.

“How do you do it?” Magnus speaks a little louder this time, so Alec can hear but not enough to spook the horse. 

Alec glances at him, the confusion on his face tells Magnus that he’s rarely asked that question.

“You really want to know?” He replies.

At Magnus’ nod he smiles softly, before turning back to face the horse, that was now weaving in front of him and pawing the ground with a foreleg.

“Animals only attack when they need to, fighting means possible injury and in the wild that could mean death, so it’s always evasion over invasion” Alec starts making his way at a distance around the horse, to the three other gates that indicate the four openings onto the courtyard. As he goes, he starts to drop witchlight stones onto the ground at equal distances. Magnus realises he’s trying to make the area brighter.

“There are certain situations when an animal is more likely to choose fight over flight, horses are herd animals so they will always go for flight first” Alec reaches the Eastern gate and starts to push it open, the rusted hinges groan as he does so and the horse lets out a loud startled snort, spinning to face him and dancing on it’s back feet.

“But when a horse is frightened, threatened, confused, even traumatised” Alec continues to talk at a steady even pace as he makes his way towards the Northern gate.

“When they’re injured, trapped or separated from another that they need to protect, that’s when they choose fight” 

Magnus slowly starts to realise what Alec is doing, by placing the witchlights he’s making it easier for the horse to see its surrounding, to reduce confusion and panic. And by opening the gates, Alec is increasing the area that the horse can run in, it’s no longer trapped. 

“Aren’t you worried he’ll run away?” Magnus asks as Alec pushes open the Western gate, propping the wonky gate back with a large rock.

“He can’t get far anyway, the wards and the walls will keep him on institute ground”

Alec then turned his attention fully to the horse, that had been watching him as he completed his loop around the courtyard. The witchlights cast the animal in a angelic glow, and Alec could see the horse’s eyes were not the white rimmed eyes of a crazed wild stallion, but the soft irises of an intelligent horse. 

“Horses are great at reading body language, so throwing your arms in the air and shouting is a threat” Alec continues as he drops down into a crouch, dropping his eyes to settle on the horse’s chest.

“Eye contact is a challenge, and making yourself seem bigger and stronger is a challenge” 

Magnus tilts his head to study Alec’s posture. The shadowhunter has crouched down just enough to be below head height for the horse, but is not quite down on his knees in case he needs to move away quickly. His lowered eyes are no longer meeting the horse’s but are instead watching the rise and fall of it’s chest and the movement of it’s forelegs. Alex has turned his body slightly away from the horse, in an attempt to hide away most of his body, to make himself seem smaller. 

Alec waits until the horse drops it’s head to meet his eye. On that cue he slowly starts to straighten, all the while talking to the animal.

“Good boy, steady now, nothing’s going to hurt you now. I’ve got you, steady good boy”

The horse’s ears flick back and forth, it lets out a loud snort and spins away from Alec, marching a few paces away before spinning back round to face him, head held higher. 

“Stallions are hard animals to gain their trust, it’s hardwired into their brains to be dominant, but once you win the trust of a stallion, they will do anything to protect you” 

Alec decides to take a new, but slightly risky tactic; in Magnus’ eyes anyway, to calm the horse. He slowly turns around and lowers himself to the floor, crossing his legs like a child as he does so. At first the horse seems disinterested but then Alec starts to sing softly.

“Will ye go lassie go, and we’ll all go together, to pluck wild mountain thyme, all around the blooming heather, will ye go lassie go...” 

The horse’s ears flick manically back and forth as he makes his way through the verse. Magnus has to hold back the small gasp he feels when the stallion lowers his head and takes a tentative step towards Alec. 

Alec can hear the soft scrape of hooves behind him as the horse starts to shuffle forwards, he forces himself to not glance back at the animal and instead continues to sing, while drawing swirls into the dirt below him.

“I will build my love a bower, near yon pure crystal fountain, and on it I will pile, all the flowers of the mountain....” 

Alec can feel the horse’s breath against the back of his neck, and raises his right hand slowly over his shoulder in offering 

“Will ye go lassie go....” He trails off as the horse pushes it’s muzzle into his hand. Magnus can’t help gripping the gate tighter as Alec slowly starts to move and stand up, all while the stallion stands at his shoulder.

Once he’s upright, Alec counts to 10 before turning to face the stallion, he draws his hand up away from the animal’s muzzle to run along the underside of his jaw, before following the path up to his ears.

“Steady now good boy, nothing’s going to hurt you, it’s all noise, I’m here now, steady good boy” he whispers to the animal as he soothes his other hand down the horse’s neck. He then removes his hands from the horse and takes a few paces back, Magnus seems to think he’s done and starts to congratulate him. It’s Jace’s hand on his arm that stops him before he can, he glances at Jace only to receive a gesture of a finger pressed against lips and a nod towards Alec.

Magnus turns back to watch the horse cover the distance that Alec has put between them, for every step Alec takes back, the horse takes forward. It suddenly then hits Magnus that he’s seen the same interaction between Alec and Hunter, both horse and man are moving as a unit.

Alec stops when he reaches the fence line and the horse halts half a pace in front of him. Alec then takes a step forward, and as if on cue, the horse takes one step back. They repeat this pattern a few more times, of Alec taking a few steps forward and then a few steps back; and each and every time the horse is in sync with him. It’s only after the third repetition that Jace claps a hand down on Magnus’ shoulder as he turns to leave.

“And that’s why he’s our resident animal expert” he grins at Magnus, ruffles a hand across Hunter’s ears that earns him a half hearted grumble, before marching back into the institute. Magnus turns back to Alec, who now has his arms wrapped around the black stallion’s neck.

“That was amazing Alexander, how on earth did you know all that?” 

Alec gives a half shrug, still running his fingers through the horse’s mane who was now starting to doze against his shoulder.

“Books I guess, how animals see the world has always amazed me”

The open grin that Alec sends his way has Magnus’ heart swooping.

“Well let’s just hope he doesn’t want to sleep on the bed too” Magnus replies and they both glance down at Hunter, who was now quite happily dozing on Magnus’ toes.


End file.
